Best Hard Lesson in Political Reality: New City Council members

Newcomers comprise more than half of the City Council, a change of the guard like Baltimore has seldom seen before. The new members are young, progressive, and enthusiastic, pushing for undocumented immigrants and the city’s low-income neighborhoods. But change doesn’t come easy: They passed a $15 minimum wage bill but couldn’t override the mayor’s veto. They completed a budget, but it’s not much different from previous city budgets. They gutted a mandatory minimum gun sentence bill, but it’s hard to imagine the old council would have done much different. Councilman John T. Bullock (9th District) just introduced a styrofoam ban that’s pretty much like the one former 1st District City Councilman Jim Kraft pushed for years. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.